Thought-Provoking Column on Teachers

This is the latest column from Leonard Pitts, Jr., a syndicated columnist. It has a lot of interesting thoughts based on a tour through a KIPP (chain of charter schools - one of the most successful charter systems in the country).

I found this section particularly compelling:

"Having spent the past year studying educational success stories, I find myself increasingly convinced that much of what ails American schools can be traced to a bureaucracy that: (a) doesn't pay enough; (b) does too little to encourage and reward creativity; (c) doesn't give principals authority over who works in their schools; (d) makes it nearly impossible to fire bad teachers.

As Dolan put it, "I don't think you can pay a good teacher enough and I don't think you can fire a bad teacher fast enough." (italics mine).

"Teachers are generally very optimistic," said KIPP co-founder Dave Levin. "Unfortunately what happens is, you don't have a lot of examples in this country of systemic success and success at scale. You might have a good teacher there or a good teacher here, but you don't get enough concentration within a school or a district to have a cycle of success." "


Comments

Anonymous said…
how about figuring out how much in time, per teacher per class per day, all ideas cost

and then getting the money to pay for the ideas,

and getting rid of stupid ideas?

why is this never on the table ?

... because we're a country loaded with credentialed managers who think making powerpoints is manager work, NOT a country of managers who have better skills at organizing, hence, they are the managers.

blame the teachers and don't pay for anything ... yawn.

anon again

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